It’s been two years since we last provided some amazing entertainment at a Sternberg Clarke Café de Paris event. Back then, we were in attendance to showcase Beat the Brief, a hugely entertaining talent evening with some of London’s lesser known – but still brilliant – entertainment acts. This time round, we simply wanted to put on an incredible party and we think all in attendance will agree that we managed just that! Special thanks to Mike Fletcher for his superb photos of a lovely evening.

Upon arriving at the venue, guests were not only able to enjoy some fantastic canapés but also some strolling entertainment. If there’s one thing we like to let people know at Sternberg Clarke, it’s that entertainment shouldn’t just be put upon a stage but can also be just as effective if given free rein! To that end, we were delighted to be able to offer multi-talented Sternberg Clarke acts – acoustic trio Wandering Hands, meet-and-greet mimes the Royal Footmen and the Flower Folk, and top magician Dan. But this was not the main focus of the evening, oh no! We had set up some chairs in the centre of Café de Paris and lo, the real show was just about to begin! Before guests were able to head down there however, LED ballet act The Fireflies produced a beautiful display.

As we all took our seats, comedian Paul Eastwood was first onto the stage, acting as compere for the night. A hugely charismatic individual, Paul was alerted to us through our sister agency Trevor George Entertainment and warmly got the crowd going. Although some of his jokes are a little risqué, there was no shortage of laughter throughout the evening. In the difficult first act slot, London Contemporary Voices wowed the crowd with a stunning a cappella song before member of the group Beatfox produced a solo beatboxing masterclass that had everyone reaching for their phones!

Claudia the contortionist was next up and having been featured in hit films like Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, we all thought we were in for a treat. And so it proved! Managing to balance on a small pole all whilst contorting herself into weird and wonderful shapes was quite remarkable and this is one act you might like to book for Hallowe’en! Hoop performer Helen Orford was next up to the stage and we filmed a good portion of her routine for Facebook Live; in short it was an elegant showcase of her skills and looked absolutely brilliant on stage.

More circus anyone? Absolutely! We welcomed Lucas & Moses to Café de Paris for a juggling routine that had us extremely impressed. The duo had performed a routine with bowler hats as folks were taking their seat and it was fab to welcome them back to the stage. Could there really be any room for any more acts in the first half? Unbelievably… Yes! Bounder & Cad produced hilarious parodies of Prince Ali from Aladdin and the opera La Dona e mobile, whilst their keyboardist’s ability to interpret any film theme into the style of any composer brought down the roof! Jurassic Park in the style of Bach and/or Mozart anyone? What a skill! Closing the first half was a brand new dance act, The Frowbacks. Street dance has never looked so good and taking their cues from numerous songs of the past, the boys produced a premiere of which they’ll be most proud!

As the interval arrived, guests might well have expected the entertainment to stop but no. Remember that this is a Sternberg Clarke showcase so there was to be no let-up in the entertainment department! We’ve had the incredible Doolally Tap in this role before – at our incredible Ivy showcase – but this time round, we decided to pay homage to theatre and events of the past; The Globe Girls gave out a free Simply Ice Cream tub to guests and were met with wide eyed grins as they showed off their impressive drag skills! For guests upstairs, Wandering Hands returned to play a few songs for a lucky chosen few.

With the dessert consumed, it was on to part two and Paul Eastwood once again graced the stage with a short set. He introduced the wonderful Emily Estelle, a classically trained British opera star who managed to silence the room with her commanding, beautiful voice. We were lucky enough to welcome TV magician Ben Hanlin to our showcase next, who produced a hilarious and amazing set involving two or three tricks that had guests getting in on the magic themselves. Just how did we all manage to match up our torn photos?

Bringing the evening to an end were two fabulous acts that have rightfully been earning a lot of praise recently. Rory O’Keeffe was fresh from a stint at the Edinburgh Fringe where he’d amassed numerous four star reviews. He’s not a macho man – “the strongest thing about me is my password” – and his use of Hawkeye to check whether a not joke worked was genius! Finally we were lucky enough to have Ember close out the night with a medley of top chart hits. This string trio get better and better every time we see them and it’s fair to say that the crowd went absolutely crazy for their tunes!

All in all, a wonderful evening and one that lead Adam Sternberg to end the evening with a heartfelt speech about entertainment often being the key to creating lasting memories. With no dry eye in the house, it was time to bring a close to our showcase at Café de Paris but we could all agree that we’d had an absolutely fantastic time!